Taiwan Trip (Day 2) 8th April 2007, Sunday

This was the sweater that mommy bought for me from Taipei 101 yesterday night. Look nice??? It feel warmer now. Yeah......



Ooopps!!! I get caught for trying to take off my hood. Sorry... mommy, but I really don't like it. It's too hot for me.



Okay..... no more playing, we are going to have our breakfast. Or else, we going to miss our bus later. We are late.....

Me and mommy on the bus waiting to go for our first destination.



Fisrt Destination: Yehliu (野柳)

It is a peninsula on the north coast of Taiwan between Taipei and Keelung. Yehliu is a cape of about 1,700 meters long formed by Datun Mountain reaching into the sea. When overlooked from above, the place is like a giant turtle submerging into the sea. Thus, it is also called "Yehliu Turtle".

This is where the bus parked and we would be gather around here after visiting the park.
Take another photo before we go into the park. Hehe....



The views here are so wonderful and special. Need to take more photos.... Everyone start posing everywhere in this park. We can never see the same view in the other places in this world.



Fortunately, there is an uncle help us to take a family photo on the bridge. Or else, now I can only show you all the pictures either me and mommy or me and daddy only. Everyone look happy inside the photo. I like holiday......

This is the pacific ocean. Wow..... It is really windy and the cool breeze flowing on my face. So great!! Someone is fishing by the ocean. I wonder can he get any fish in this time because the ocean is quite wavy.

This is the only statue in the Yehliu Park, statue of Lin Tien Jane in commemoration of the person's bravery of scarifying own live for saving others. The monument describes in details the touching story. So daddy take a photo with him and remind himself to be brave.

The rock layer of seashore contains sandstone of limestone texture and it is subject to sea erosion, weathering and earth movements, there is particular scenery consisting of sea trenches/holes, candle shaped rocks, and pot shaped rocks. The place is divided into three sections. The first section has rocks like Queen's Head, Fairy's Shoe and Candle.

This is the Queen Nefertiti's head, one of the most famous stone formations in Yehliu. The tourist guide told us the neck may break off one day. So maybe when I come again in the next 10 or 15 this Queen's head may not exist anymore. Really glad that mommy and daddy brought me here today.

The second section has rocks like Bean Curd, Dragon Head. Does it look like tofu???

The third section has sea-eroded caves, seal shaped rock, etc. The place is suitable for geological study and field research.

Second Destination: Jiufen (九份)

According to our tour guide, it is said that long time ago there were only nine families in Jiufen. Before the roads on land were built, all materials were transported via ships. Thus a habit was formed that nine pieces of same object were purchased at one time for reservation. Hence, the place was called Jiufen .

Jiufen used to the center of gold mining. It is located within the hills in northeast of Taiwan. The village is next to the mountain and facing the sea. In 1890, someone struck gold near Jiufen. The poor village with only nine families soon attracted prospectors of 4,000 families. The village once was gold city of Asia and called little Shanghai or little Hong Kong. However, with the decline of gold mining activities, Jiufen fades.

Later, several movies chose to shoot here and the movies won international acknowledgement. For example, the film the Sad City has won first prize in Venice Film Festival and awakened people's memory of Chiufen. It seems that the prosperous old streets, buildings, mines and the glamorous gold digging days are flashing before our eyes. The place is whispering its golden past.

Now, there are many unique teahouses in Jiufen. These teahouses are best stops during visit to this mountain village. Also, there is the beautiful ocean view of Keelung outer sea.

The most prosperous shopping district is Jinshan Street. It goes through most of the village. There are many visitors on the street. Along the street there are shops vending the most famous country snack of beef noodle, taro balls, peanut ice cream crepe, smelly tofu

The first thing we try is the beef noodle. Heard that they never throw away the soup base and keep boiling the new soup for around 50 years time. Daddy stop eating when mommy told him about it. Daddy felt a bit disgusting for using the 50 years soup over and over again.

There's a mixture of taro balls, potatos, sago, green beans and some ice, if you asked for the cold one. There's a lot of people queuing up. Hopefully, we can still get a sit inside the shop. Hmm.... it's quite tasty and taste like bubur cha cha. The taro balls are very Q. "Thumbs Up"

This is the grill hotdog, lamb, chicken and beef. It smelled so nice, but we didn't try.

After having fun and walking around the Jiufen street, we go back to the gathering area to wait for the bus. Tell you all something, just now daddy and mommy get lost in Jiufen. Haha.... we end up make a very big round back to the front where we have our beef noodle.

Third Destination: Nan Tien Temple

From Jiufen to Nan Tien Temple, we went through Nanfang-ouwhich is a major base for coastal fishing. There's a lot of fishing boats and yatchs.

On the way, we also saw a beautiful waterfall.

This was an industrial area before. We just stop by here to use the toilet. Don't really know where it was.

We arrived at Nan Tien Temple. We didn't feel like taking the photo of the temple because of some myths. So we just took down the notice board to learn more about the temple's history.

This was the Peanut Ice Cream Crepe. It's really yummy..... we didn't get a chance to try this in Jiufen just now. Fortunately, we can still have it outside the NanTien Temple before we head to Hualien later.

This is one of the aunty in our tour. She is also Malaysian holding a Singapore PR. She is so nice and always help mommy to carry me when mommy is tired. She also has a grand daughter almost my age. I can feel that she miss her grand daughter so much.

We are so lucky today. There's a Mazu Parade in next few minutes. So the tour guide let us finish watching the parade before we continue our journey to Hualien. Wow.... it's really a grand ceremony and a lot of people walking around and busy with their on duty. There's a fire crackers as well, very interesting. An uncle worry the fire crackers might scare me, he then pick up some of the leftover of the fire crackers and pass it to mommy. He ask mommy to mix it into the water that I use to take my bath tonight.

Fourth Destination: Ami Aboriginal Cultural Village

The bus is just driving by the side of the cliff and there's no road divider between the cliff and the road. This is the most dangerous highway in Taiwan.

This is the bus station in between Nanfang-ao and Hualien. Everyone go to the toilet while mommy and me is taking photo outside.

A-Mei is an aboriginal tribe in Hualien. Before we go to the Amei Aboriginal Culture Centre, we go to one of the Amei cuisine restaurant to have our dinner. The foods also very special, I have some rice, chicken and soup. Outside the restaurant, there's a van sell Mua Chi very cheap, 3 for 10 NT but it's almost expire. The tour guide says we can buy and eat it on our journey but not bring it back home. But we can buy it as gift for those who we hate the most. Haha.... that tour guide really bad.

After that, we arrive at the Amei Aboriginal Culturer Park. In this cultural center, you can see A-Mei people's unique lifestyle. They display a lot of woods that's about a few hundred thousand years old. They still keep it in a good condition and it's extremely tough.

We will be going inside to watch the Amei Aboriginal Dance.

Finally, back to our hotel. This hotel room is so big!!!! We have two big bed. I don't have to share bed with daddy tonight. Hehehe.....